hey whats sup guys i just finished re doing my system, sounds great, except for when i turn on or off the radio amp makes poping noise, it isn't too loud but its there, and did not have any noise before redoing my system

what i have

Alpine MRV 345 amp
Pioneer deh9400mp head unit
Boston Acustics SL60 components
Transparent "the link" RCA cables
HiFi home thearter speaker wires

what could it be?


ALSO, something i found very weird, about the Gains in the amp, why when i give it more gain the volume lowers and when i lower it volume goes up?? is this how its supposed to be?

again sounds super clear, 0 distortion, no clipping and loud

 

Hmmm....weird...most new amps have circuitry to prevent this. The gain thing is definetely wrong. I would say check your power/ground wiring, and if they are fine...might be a defective amp.

 

 

The popping comes from a poor amplifier ground. Use a multimeter to check that you've got <4 ohms between the amplifier ground post and the battery negative terminal (with the car shut off).

As for the gain, sounds like a bad amp. Although, it could be the amp's protective circuitry - sees that it's got a bad ground and so limits it's output power. Turning up the gain exacerbates this problem, so it limits itself even more? But then, I don't know Alpine amplifiers so it's just a guess.

 

depends on how you define "more gain." As you turn the gain control
towards higher input voltage, you're reducing the amp's sensitivity to
input voltage, so output will be reduced for a given input. In other words,
setting the amp to higher input voltage *reduces* the gain.

 

Ok i cheked my ground and moved it to the exact same spot as it was before reduing my system (rear strut bar bolt) <is this a good ground?) and it still did it. ran a wire straight from the batery negative terminal, and it still did it. i have a multimiter, and tried checking resistance but not 100% sure if i did that right, how should i do this?

thanks

 

[QUOTE=oth,Dec 24 2007, 11:50 PM]depends on how you define "more gain."

 

yes, it should be louder at .2v than 4v.
you're basically telling it what peak voltage to expect from the headunit,
so the amp produces its maximum unclipped output when it sees that
voltage. If you set it too low, the amp will produce its peak power too low
in the headunit's volume range, and if you turn the headunit up higher you'll
get distortion. If set too high, the amp will never see a signal that drives
the amp to peak output, so you'll never get the amp's full power.

 

awsome, yeah i was a bit confused there.... thanks man! , so how can i know what the optimum gain setting is? and what my highest volumen would be?

thanks again

 

If you have a multimeter, check the voltage of the remote wire as it turns on. See if it is spiking.